Here’s a brokerage account for your smartphone where virtually no investment is too small. Think of it as linking your piggy bank —or in my case, a milk bottle—to a brokerage account with about 30 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)—from aggressive and volatile to money market—to choose from. You can even invest in silly “socially responsible” stuff if you like. It’s under the “I Believe” tab. :)

If you might rather have the $5 you would have spent on a small popcorn at the theater go to a Warren Buffet Fund instead? There’s an app for that, right in your pocket. A robotics fund? Yeah, that too.

…And this is really the genius behind the app. Giving you the motivation combined with the ease to make opportunity cost decisions on the spot and execute them on the spot. From the link:

Opportunity cost refers to a benefit that a person could have received, but gave up, to take another course of action. Stated differently, an opportunity cost represents an alternative given up when a decision is made. This cost is, therefore, most relevant for two mutually exclusive events. In investing, it is the difference in return between a chosen investment and one that is necessarily passed up.

Or, in this context, the difference in return between a chosen investment and a sunk consumable cost that is passed up.

I stashed $16.50 yesterday from the time I signed up. There are two ways to do this:

Forego something entirely. Like, you walk into a Starbucks, look at the price for that Ultra-Venti-Concoction and assess your tradeoff.

I did it both ways yesterday. Two things I gave up entirely and Stashed instead. One was having a cocktail before dinner. $7 Stashed. The other was that I would have normally had the ribeye for $29. I went for the pork porterhouse at $24 instead. Another $5 Stashed.

You can do this on the fly, throughout the day, then the app will roll these all up into a single ACH transfer from your linked bank account.

Do you see how this could accumulate? I estimate that just based on a single day, I’ll probably Stash $300 or more per month that would have otherwise gone for stuff I didn’t really need, and that Stash is working for me in actual investments.

Now, here’s another aspect that will apply to some of you more than others. Do you have a social network? Well, once you hit the link and sign up, either via your desktop or iOS or Android phone, you can then share it, and when people sign up with that link, this is what happens.

They get $5 free to invest

You get $5 free to invest

When three people have signed up and they and you have received $30 total from that, Stash gives you a $35 bonus

From then on, for every 2 people that sign up, y’all get the $20 from that, and you get a $20 bonus.

So, I made an easy and quick $80 in under 24 hours, all OPM, but all from Stash and in fact, the 5 people who signed up got $25 combined themselves. Nobody lost out. Those funds, as well as the $20 I added myself for a total of $100, is in three funds: an aggressive growth, an aggressive R/E, and Sage-from-Omaha ETFs.

Going forward, I have it set up to do an auto $10 into the aggressive growth fund every week, and $10 deposit into Stash weekly that I’ll distribute manually based on senses at the time.

So have at it. Start turning some of your silly, worthless, go-nowhere spending into long-term gains.

Smart. This is pretty much how I bought my Bitcoin over time. If I skipped coffee and brought a home made lunch to work I’d put $15 or $20 into Bitcoin.

I would have just had boiled potatoes and eggs instead of the rib eye though and stashed $26 because I am a miserable old bastard. Fuck restaurants. I only go once a year for an old friend’s birthday. When they die, I will go no more.

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Speaking of financial innovation, I have always wondered if it would be possible to set up a tontine based on Bitcoin. This would avoid some blocks getting lost forever when their owner dies without passing on the security information to their heirs. It could be automated such that if an account is inactive for a period of time (1 to 10 years, say) then the balance is redistributed to remaining members on a pro rata basis according to the surviving members balances. Thoughts?

I think it’s a fabulous idea. It’s somewhat akin to discounting a life insurance policy and sending birthday and Christmas cards, hoping it’s returned to sender. :)

Also, I’d encourage everyone to keep any substantial crypto holdings in a paper wallet (Google around, they’re easy to set up…MyEtherWallet is ridiculously easy), in a ziplock or water-proof laminate, in a bolted down fire safe and either make sure an heir or two know of it. Alternatively, you can set up an estate attorney as an executor and they’ll know what to do.

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I'm Richard Nikoley. Free the Animal began in 2003 and as of 2018, contains over 4,600 posts and 110,000 comments from readers. I cover a lot of ground, blogging what I wish...from health, diet, and lifestyle to philosophy, politics, social issues, and cryptocurrency. I celebrate the audacity and hubris to live by your own exclusive authority and take your own chances in life. [Read more...]

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